Inseperable
by Julchen M. Liddell
Summary: Nobody seems to understand why Makoto hangs around Haruka. Makoto doesn't really understand it himself, but honestly, he just doesn't care. Light MakoHaru and a brief mention of Reigisa.


"Ah...excuse me?"

Makoto looked up from his seat, where he had been putting his books away after the final bell, at the girl who had appeared in front of him. She was one of his classmates, but he was honestly unfamiliar with her name. Her dark hair was braided into plaits and Makoto was pretty sure he saw her girl posse behind her, whispering and giggling as they observed from afar.

He blinked and looked around. Haruka was gone, which he supposed was to be expected. They had swim practice that day, so naturally his friend would take off out the door the minute the bell rang. Makoto returned his attention to the girl. Was it Kiku, or...Kirika...?

"Can I help you, um..."

She smiled understandingly. "Kirie Kotonoha. We haven't really spoken before now, so I don't blame you for not knowing."

Aha. So it had started with a _K_, at least. "Well, I'm sorry anyway," Makoto laughed, slightly embarrased. "Do you need something?"

Kotonoha plopped herself down in Haruka's vacant seat. Makoto wasn't sure how to feel about that. "Actually, I'd like to ask you something, Tachibana-kun," she replied, twiddling one long braid around her finger. "If it's alright with you, of course. I promise it won't take long."

Makoto felt his gaze stray out the window and towards the swimming pool in the distance. He could just barely make out Rei and Nagisa standing on the edge, and Haruka naturally already in the water. Gou walked out to them and he bit his lip. If he was late to practice the red-haired girl would have his head. Now that Rei had finally gotten the hang of swimming they needed to start training hard if they wanted to have a chance at prefecturals.

Kotonoha and her girlfriends, however, were looking at him expectantly, and Makoto swallowed a sigh and said, "Of course it's fine. What is it?"

"Welllll," she drawled, "there's a new sushi place that just opened up near the docks. Sometime this weekend I was wondering if you'd like to check it out with me?"

Oh.

_Oh_.

He was being asked out. That was rare. It had happened a few times before, in middle school and during his first year, but either the dates hadn't gone well (Makoto honestly had no idea) or any more potential requests had been scared off by Makoto's sheer size, which was probably rather intimidating, or by the constant presence of Haruka's stony silence. But seeing as Haruka wasn't in the room and Makoto had so far been spending second year trying to make a good impression with everyone, he supposed a question like Kotonoha's shouldn't come as a surprise.

"Hmm..." His breath rushed out as he considered the answer, feeling thankful that Kotonoha didn't seem to be in a big hurry, even if he was. She sat patiently with her elbows propped up on Makoto's desk, a small smile on her face.

What was he doing this weekend? "Well...I'd like to, certainly, but I don't know if I have the free time. After school every day I have practice for the swim team, and I've got plans over the weekend."

"Oh?" Kotonoha looked surprised. "Like what? Maybe we can work around it."

"Well," Makoto repeated, trying to look anywhere but her, "I have to watch my younger siblings while my parents are out of town, and Haru usually stays over when that happens, so..."

Kotonoha's look soured almost instantly. "I see. I should have figured."

"I...sorry, what?"

"It's fine!" She threw her arms in the air. "Sayaka-chan tried to warn me, she said you're never _not _around Nanase-kun, and she was in your class through all of middle school too so she would know. I guess I couldn't have expected anything to be different for me-"

"I think you might be jumping to conclusions a bit." Makoto felt himself turning red. What kind of reputation did he have? Sure, he was around Haruka most of their waking hours, but that wasn't anything usual, was it? Haruka was so distant and out of it most of the time, sometimes Makoto actually felt nervous about leaving him alone. And it wasn't like his whole weekend was going to revolve around his friend; Makoto really did need to take care of Ren and Ran from Thursday until Sunday night.

"I don't think so," Kotonoha told him, flipping her braids over her shoulder. "It's obvious to everyone, now that I think about it."

"...What?"

"No big deal. Maybe another time, then." With that, she slung her bag over her shoulder and rejoined her group of friends. They all left the room muttering to each other, leaving a horribly confused Makoto behind.

There was a long beat of silence.

"...That was rough man," one of Makoto's male classmates told him. The brunet couldn't find it in him to disagree.

"Kotonoha-chan did have a point though," another chipped in. "You are with Nanase a lot. You put out this sort of _vibe_, you know? You'll never get a girlfriend at this rate."

"No offense to him or anything, but Nanase's kind of weird. Sorry, Tachibana."

"Yeah. All he ever does is stare out the window, right? Never talks to anyone, either. To be honest I don't even see why you hang around him, Makoto. You're both entirely different."

"Haru's just...shy..." Makoto struggled. The explanation sounded pathetic, even to him. Haruka wasn't exactly shy, he just didn't feel like putting in the effort needed to interact with others. To outsiders it probably looked like he didn't care about anyone at all, or thought himself above them. As his friend Makoto knew that wasn't true, but explaining it to others was...difficult.

"Sure, whatever you say," the first boy snorted. "I dunno, I just don't think Nanase's going to get you very far. He's a bit creepy Makoto, maybe you outta branch out."

Makoto almost wanted to get angry and reprimand his classmates for what they were saying about his friend, but losing his temper wasn't in his nature and he didn't have the time to try and explain exactly why he and Haruka were friends to a bunch of people who likely wouldn't understand anyway. Instead he just sighed, pointed out that he was terribly late for practice, and took his leave.

* * *

Try as he might, Makoto was unable to get the words of his classmates out of his head as he walked down to the pool.

"Branch out." That meant 'make friends who aren't Haruka Nanase', didn't it. That was ridiculous though, he had other friends. He was close to Nagisa, Rei, and Gou at this point, wasn't he? And he was on good terms with all his classmates, even if he had trouble with their names and didn't have a relationship with any of them outside of school. However, Haruka was still his best friend. He knew that people tended to avoid him because of his cold, stoic nature, but nobody had ever really voiced their opinion on the swimmer before, and especially not in front of anyone on the swim team themselves, Makoto included.

Haruka was a bit strange, Makoto knew that, but not to the extent that most people made him out to be. So what was an intense passion for water and swimming? Everyone had something they were passionate about, be it art or music or pole-vaulting, whatever. Not many people even knew about Haruka's obsession with water anyway, so that couldn't be a factor in their gossiping. And sure, Makoto did get concerned when Haruka swam when it was too cold or spent too long of a time in his lukewarm bathtub, but he didn't think how _often _Haruka liked to swim was really an issue.

Maybe it was the closeness of their relationship that others found overtly strange? Makoto couldn't help it; he and Haruka had been friends since they were seven, at least. Rin and Nagisa had come along later, and while Makoto was (or had been) close to both of them, it didn't match the relationship he had had with Haruka since childhood. No, the closeness couldn't be it. Rei and Nagisa made no secret of the nature of their relationship, they were close (rather feely, actually) and nobody was avoiding them or telling them they needed to branch out from each other or the other members of the swim team.

Makoto sighed as he finally reached the pool after changing, deciding he just wouldn't be able to figure it out. Gou scolding him for his lateness and wasted no time in beginning their practice. Nagisa immediately went to work on helping Rei improve his speed, occasionally grabbing his hands and pulling him along to encourage him to go faster. Makoto swam a few laps, making sure not to run into the pair or Haruka, and was so zoned out out he didn't notice his best friend paddle up behind him.

"Mako."

He jumped and spun around, accidentally splashing water into Haruka's face. Haruka didn't seem to mind, instead fixing him with a look that might be concern if it wasn't so deadpan.

"Y-Yes?"

"You're quiet."

That was "Are you alright?" in Haruka-language. Makoto smiled. His friend really didn't miss a thing. Haruka noticed everything, even if it didn't seem like it.

"I'm fine," he replied. "Don't worry about it. I'm just thinking."

Haruka looked like he wanted to ask about it but must have had no way to go about it without expressing more interest than strictly necessary, so he ducked back underwater instead. To anyone else this would have looked rather unfeeling, but Makoto had been around Haruka enough to be used to it. They both knew that if anything was really wrong it would be discussed later, and Makoto didn't think this issue was was worth bringing to the black-haired boy's attention anyway. He returned to his laps, and his thoughts.

"Branch out." That was a difficult concept to grasp. Haruka was such an ingrained part of his life, he wasn't something that could just be replaced. Makoto couldn't imagine anyone else to share popsicles with, or anyone the twins accepted as wholeheartedly as they did Haruka. Makoto could hardly even remember a time when Haruka wasn't in his life, and vice versa, and he honestly couldn't see an issue with it. He liked other people, he was open and friendly, but he didn't really want another best friend.

If Kotonoha had a problem with Haruka, then Makoto wouldn't want to go on a date with her anyway. It wouldn't last, so what would the point in it be?

"Haru," he called over suddenly, catching his attention, "You're coming over this weekend, right? Just like usual?"

Haruka blinked. "Of course."

"Just checking."

"Why did you even need to ask?"

Why, indeed.

* * *

Haruka did come over on Thursday, and stayed until late that weekend. One night after the twins are put to bed he passed out on Makoto's lap, one hand tightly gripping his shirt in his sleep. Makoto doesn't bother moving him, instead shifting the smaller boy to a more comfortable positing and occasionally stroking his hair. It felt natural, because this sort of thing had happened ever since grade school. Neither of them had a problem with it, so Makoto forgot any worries he might have had about their relationship because _this _was it, and it didn't need explaining to anyone else.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Oh Julchen, you have a million other things that need your attention and updates? Nope, we're going to focus on writing introspective gay swimmers instead. **

**It's been a while since I've written for an anime that wasn't Hetalia, or an anime in general, but swimming anime has taken over my life and the words really started to **_**flow **_**once I got going. The experience has been rather **_**freeing**_**. I guess you could say the writing process went **_**swimmingly**_**. *dodges rotten tomatoes* **

**Anyway. Not my best work, but thank you for reading in any case!**


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